Friday, March 27, 2009
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Sap is in the sugar
We are still collecting sap today. I was the non believer, I thought it was all over. The sugar content is some of the lowest we have collected and boiled, 1.5 was the reading off one batch, but it still turns into syrup with heat and time. In fact, tonight, the syrup was coming off looking like grade A, not even the B we thought we would be making. Don't worry, if you are a B fan like so many, there will be plenty.
Monday, March 23, 2009
Sap from Trees
Sol's science experiment and data.
Tap a 7 different leafy trees to test for sap and sugar content.
Sugar Maple, Red Maple, Silver Maple, Black Cherry, Hickory, Black
Birch, Black Walnut. The trees were tapped on Thursday March 12th and the sap was collected
one week later on Thursday March 19.
Sol's chart:
Tree types , Cups of sap collected, Sugar %, Amt of syrup it would produce in cups
Sugar Maple, 176, 2.2, 4.5
Red Maple, 74, 2.2, 1.9
Silver Maple, 112, 2.3, 3.0
Black Cherry, .5, .4 , .002
Hickory, 5DROPS, 98.0, N.A.
Black Birch, 0, N.A., N.A.
Black Walnut, 8, 1.9, .2
Friday, March 20, 2009
more syrup and ticks
Can we make more syrup today? Last night it was below freezing. Two days ago Sylvan spent the whole morning gallivanting about the yard in his underwear. I love this about sugaring, getting up close and in the face of the season change. Watching as new life emerges from the thaw, like ticks. Dylan was out on the Other Side of the Deep Woods and said they were plentiful, he put his head down at knee height and said you could see them on every branch along the deer trails waiting for a passerby to cling to. We need to allow the coyotes and mountain lions back in to eat the white footed mice that carry the lime disease. We need some wild creatures to thin the deer populations that carry the little beasts. We need healthy populations of wild birds that want to gobble the little creatures down.
I digress, our business at hand is making syrup, and today we may make more, it may be grade B, but that is the most requested variety we have so...
Next post will be on Sols' tree tapping experiment.
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Its warm.
Okay the kids are outside in bare feet and underwear. The ice is off the pond so it's time to take a swim. It must be grade B is in the making next run....
Sounds of sap
This is the sound the sap gurgling through the tube makes as it comes from the Deep Woods and up over the hill to the tank behind the sugarhouse. Farm 2009.
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
mad grouse
farm 2009. This bird likes to come out of the undergrowth when it hears the tractor approaching. It may think we are a potential mate. Maybe something is wrong with it. This will be the third sugaring season that this bird has been living and owning the area we call knoll run. No one feeds it. It is wild, and really doesn't want to hold still long enough for me to picture its plumage.
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Sugaring 2009
Tapping began early this year. Let's see, about February 6-9 the first half of the taps were set. The second half were set between February 22-25. Mirah is out for the main part of this season for her new CD release so she and Dylan worked in January to set up the old lines and plot out some new, clean and set up evaporator and generally get everything ready and underway. They got to make the first batch of syrup before she headed back West and the weather cooperated to let Dylan travel back to VT in time for Sol's birthday. Dylan, Meghan and kids got back to the farm in time for the second round of sugaring weather with BK from Burlington along to be major help person. More trees tapped, cold nights, sap runs, boiling boiling, syrup. Visit from Bull and Karin. Wood moved and split. Meghan and kids leave again. Cold snap, more syrup. Cassy and Jenny show up in time for some bucket collecting (we still have about 250 buckets out there) and sap tank pumping and ...boiling. A day of canning, after much coffee drinking procrastination, tied the sap run days together. Today is March 11th, just over a month into the season and we have made 290 gallons of really good tasting syrup. Susie's chickens re also starting to lay more eggs and Margie is picking up a Jacob's ram to join the flock, on Thursday.
Wednesday, March 04, 2009
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